Huff Winkler's '66 Chevy C10 Tribute Truck

Better known to Huff Winkler as "Alcy," this '66 Chevy C10 holds special memories and character. The funny name was derived from a combination of Huff's father, Albert, and mother, Lucy, and Huff came up with the name as a way to dedicate the truck to them. When it was in full operation, Albert used and abused the C10 on his farm to haul hay and feed cows. After he passed away, the truck remained stationary and almost abandoned until his family decided to let Huff take it over and cherish it.

When Huff started the project, he decided to not only restore it but to add some custom touches to it. At first, he began stripping down all of the sheetmetal and quickly found out that there was more damage than he initially thought. This meant that the common areas like the lower parts of the front fenders and rocker panels had to be replaced. Huff ordered replacements from Classic Parts of America and installed them with the help of his son, Callahan.

One of the things Huff wanted to do but wasn't sure if his mother would approve of was to alter the suspension with the use of airbags. She associated it with gang members and was highly against it when Huff's son put an adjustable air system on an '82 Chevy. Though he was in question about his mother's consent, he made the arrangement for the crew of Rods by Rod to get it to a low yet respectable height. Then, it was off to Terry Deck of TD Airbrush to complete the rest of the truck. One of first operations to be done was the implant of a Chevy 350 small-block with a 700-R4 transmission. Then, to keep more room in the interior, Terry deleted the floor shifter and made a linkage system to transform a manual column shifter to work with the new automatic transmission.

On the bed, Huff wanted the Chevrolet logo to be removed from the tailgate and placed on the front of the bed. Next, the tailgate would get filled in with clear Lexan so that the logo would still be visible through it. Huff had this mod done to his first truck, a '59 Chevy. It was a big hit when it was done decades before, so Huff knew it would be something that would still get people's attention. Terry made sure that it was done, along with widening the rear fenders for clearance of the new billet wheels. It took two sets of fenders on each side and an overlap of sheetmetal to expand its size.

After all of the sheetmetal was perfect, it was time to get coated in paint. Huff chose a vibrant gold because the truck was originally gold, and he wanted the folks in his town to recognize it as his parent's truck. The paint was sprayed on the outside, and even the interior sheetmetal was coated, as well. Then, a set of bucket seats from a '95 Chevy truck and a brand-new aftermarket stereo completed the rest of the interior. In its new form, Huff debuted the truck to his mother and the rest of the family. Even though his mother didn't like airbags, she could not argue about it setting the truck off nicely. Now that Alcy has been completed, we're sure that Huff's father, Albert, would have been proud to see the truck in its new form.